A Week of Camping

I've posted about 40 not-too-shabby pictures from my island-wide trip this past week (we had a break for Chinese New Year). You can read the details from some of the pictures in this Picasa web album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lonhig/ChineseNewYear09

This follows my 環島 "loop island" journey camping across Taiwan. Some nights we trespassed on farms, one night we camped at an elementary school, we backpacked a tiny slice of Taroko and stayed in a very old spa in Yilan. As you can see, my preoccupations were a little mountain-centric. Besides mountains, it was amazing seeing the Pacific from the cliffs along the East coast, lots of fireworks everywhere every night, Taroko gorge, eating lots of fresh veggies from mountain farms (so much better than lowland veggies!), drinking lots of tea fresh from the mountain-top using mountain stream water, seeing cherry blossoms, visiting a very old Japanese-built hot springs, and meeting really happy people everywhere. Everywhere we went (Mountains and East area) was predominantly aboriginal villages.

Here is a preview:

Kending Part Deaux

OK, I am new to sharing pictures online, but I plan to store all my photos (not just the ones that make the New Sky cut) at http://picasaweb.google.com/lonhig

So Saturday morning after the bikes were rented and we somehow reached the top of the mountain, we arrived at a forested park with a relatively small network of trails. What the trails lacked in length, however, they amply made up for in beauty and diversity. There were huge rocks everywhere that looked pitted, as if they'd spent part of their lives under the sea. Parts of the trail went under the rocks through short caves and crevices. The highlights of the hike were the vistas of the hills with the sea in the background.

This was on one of our "stick your head in a creek" breaks before we reached the top. I don't know what kind of trees these were, but all the vine-looking things are actually hanging roots. It's like the land was snatched away from under the trees.

There was a nice ocean breeze and plenty of views along the hike.

OK, it was more like ocean wind in some places :)

This guy was ready for his close up.


We found some good vines for swinging.

Next, after eating very big bowls of noodle soup, we flew down the mountain on our bikes and went to one of the beaches. Over Saturday and Sunday we actually went to three beaches and one pool. The first beach had an "international" surfing competition going on, but it was kind of sad because the waves were weak that day. At least they were projecting good music from their tent. I am now going to mess up the chronology of this tale so as to consolidate the beach pictures:

This is from one of the hotels we pretended to be guests at. It was beautiful, but we left because you couldn't swim in the ocean without a life vest. (?!) I am doing my best to hide my mouthful of food.

Nicole sporting one of the beach toys I brought.

This was the most beautiful beach we went to. The name translates to "White Sand Beach". The waves were just big enough to body surf and some of the rocks were out in the water for me to dive off of. And before you think I'm really stupid enough to dive into the shallow sea, let me inform you that the water was soooo clear! If you've been to the Gulf, it was just like their water - it was turquoise-colored, but I could look down to the bottom through 1.5 meters of it. This beach is out of the way too, so it was really uncrowded.

You can thank my parents for putting it in my head that I should take pictures like this one ;)

Besides chilling on the beaches, we also pretended to be guests at a very nice resort hotel. It had a nice outdoor pool with comfortable chairs and ample plant life.

The hotel's pool get's my official stamp of approval. It was big and relaxing. Too bad it wasn't $3 a night, though places like this start at only $70 I hear, and this hotel also had a private beach. The food, etc. was all surprisingly cheap in Kending, considering it's the resort town in Taiwan.

We ate at Sushi Express Saturday night. I had raw scallops for the first time! I can now say I love scallops prepared any way!

This is a fish market in a nearby fishing village. The stands will cook your purchase for you if you want. Do I look tired and hungry? Like I've been at the beach all day? It's OK, I had this to look forward to:

Big ol' crabs, clams, some kind of mountain vegetable, and rice. Oh yea, and Taiwan Pi Jio ("Taiwan Beer" brand beer). I still dream about that crab...

Kending Part 1

I have a lot to write about my trip to Kending (Kenting) last weekend, but my schedule is busy so I will start with a short post now and continue later. I made last minute plans to go to Kending National Park Friday through Sunday with my friend Nicole. Kending is the resort town on the Southern tip of Taiwan - a popular destination for beachgoers and surfers. Besides beautiful weather and beaches, Kending is home to some stunning mountains and cliffs. Though it is a resort town, and the most prominent one in Taiwan, you would be amazed how little Kending has been built up. All the hotels and tourist shops are restricted to one main drag. Most of the land is protected once you get a half mile inland due to the National Park.

Kending is that yellow star

Nicole grew up in Tainan and is very familiar with the area in and around Kending. She also has a car, so it only took us about 2.5 hours to get to our destination. She looked for campgrounds online before we left, and the place we settled on turned out to be a beautiful, isolated field in the hills between the mountains and the sea. Also, we had the whole field to ourselves except for one tent far on the other side. Oh ya, it cost us a total of $3 a night to stay there. The beach was a 2 minute drive south and we were right near the road that leads up to the mountains.

A shot of the sunrise Saturday morning from our "camp site".

We went exploring Saturday morning around the campground. I almost walked into this guy, the biggest spider I've ever seen, save tarantulas. It was the size of Nicole's open hand.

Upon my first encounter with a mountain crab, I thought he was very, very lost. Nope, these guys just live around streams - I had no idea. (Kending has "normal" crabs at the beach, too)

Not too far from the field was a small house with these cages out front. Nicole informs me that the habitants must be training these messenger pigeons for competition. She has an uncle that does the same. The pigeons are sent off to some predetermined (distant, I presume) destination and have to race each other there and back.

This is in the campground. I was all ready to pose in front of this sweet-looking driftwood and flower arrangement when I noticed a big lizard standing next to me. Well, the lizard wasn't big by Kending standards it turns out. I saw lots and lots of them over the weekend.

Another view from the campground.

This was a pathetic attempt on my part to do the "stick your hand out and take your own picture." The little spot of blue in the top-right corner is the ocean that was supposed to comprise the whole background... It's a good picture of Nicole at least. This picture was taken on our arduous bicycle trip up the mountain to go hiking in one of the scenic parks. We rented bikes Saturday morning and decided to go up the mountain before hitting the beaches. I'll continue the next post with our montain hike. Zai jien :)